Chapter XXXIII
Hooked: The Lunch Box Journal
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Story so far: While Akhil was pursuing his ‘crush’ interest Likhita was burning up on the inside when her tattoo was accidentally seen by one of the group members. Before they plan to decipher the tattoo, there was a lot happening otherwise. Read on…
Sameer had his share of luck. As soon as his visa got approved he got an opportunity to travel out of the country. And he was traveling along with his family like he had done earlier. With a week his visa was approved he had started packing his packs along with his family to travel, while Gautham had been waiting for a little while, but there was a real opportunity waiting for him round the corner. Akhil’s visa was also underway and was in the last stages of it. He had been juggling among a lot many things, like work, Srestha, Likhita, Srestha, and Likhita.
It was the usual morning and Aryan was sitting in the canteen alone since his bus is the first to arrive among his friends. And he stays there for close to an hour before they disperse back to their cubicles to do their work. He was sipping coffee when Akhil arrived in the canteen and he got his Green Tea and was settling in when he saw Srestha in the canteen standing the queue for her morning tea. Aryan had an addiction for coffee. He drank it like water, while Akhil was the health conscious guy and was trying to get in shape by hitting the gym every morning. Though the broken ankle had restricted his routine for a short while, but he was back on track at the gym. After all, he had paid for a year-long membership and there were no refunds for the same. Hence, he resumed going back to the gym. Srestha seemed to be in shape who didn’t need any gym, but all she wanted to do was gain a little more weight. Meanwhile, everyone else was trying to cut down their weight, she was fixated on gaining. Aryan was a junk freak who lived on burgers, pizzas, coffee and everything and anything junk. There was no alternative unless of course, he goes home where he had no other choice than to eat the good healthy food. But even there, the pizza would appear in that short duration that he usually goes home.
Srestha joined Akhil at the table where Aryan was already sitting. Srestha and Aryan shared a cab earlier before she got a bike of her own. So, she seemed to have remembered him even though they had never interacted with each other, perhaps as some creepy guy from her bus stop. Meanwhile, Neil saw Aryan and Akhil sitting in the canteen at their usual spot and joined them thinking that the girl in from of them was actually Likhita, which he realized that she wasn’t once he sat down. She figured out the other friends of Akhil by the stories that Akhil had told her about this group of friends. There seems to be complete transparency from his side about the things that were private among the group, which apparently no longer were. In one such encounter, Akhil who usually is the most outgoing guy of the group was feeling so shy around her that he instead of talking to her face of face when she was right opposite to him, he was texting her. Aryan, who was sitting just beside Akhil was feeling the most awkward person and was planning his escape so that he could leave these people to talk freely instead of texting each other when they were right in front of each other.
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Meanwhile…
Neil had successfully hit it off with Myrah. They had taken a step further, met a couple of times over coffee and lunches to decide their compatibility and the likes of it, including dislikes as well. The talks happened among each other’s parents who had to give a go ahead. In traditional marriages, there are quite a lot of things, sort of a huge checklist that need to be taken care of. And unless all these are satisfied, they won’t be sure whether the couple is right for each other or not. Meanwhile, Gautham was also getting proposals from his relatives, matrimonial sites, and his friends. One such proposal even involved a girl who was fifteen years old. Gautham was apparently in full demand.
Sameer was comfortably settling himself in his new house overseas along with his family, Neil’s parents were okay with Myrah and yet there were a little more things to be taken care of. And when both the parties agreed to go ahead with the marriage, Neil got engaged to Myrah. Gautham was at his hometown when he met her, Deeksha. He was smitten by her the first time he saw She had everything he had hoped for in a girl and he even liked her voice. Being too much into music, he had this criteria that needs to be validated that the girl should have a nice and sweet voice.
Neil, the usually offline kinda guy had installed messaging service on his phone and is being online as well. That was a drastic change on his part. But it was a much-needed change because there was no other way he could talk to her would be. Though he had some surprised up his sleeve when he used to meet after by leaving early from office. All these talking and meeting is much needed to understand the level of compatibility and each other’s opinions and thoughts on all things. Gautham was so happy to have found the girl, but there was a bit of a clause attached to it. He had to wait for sometime before he could get married to her. Since she had just completed her college, her family wanted her to settle before they could have her married, which was understandable and perfectly okay with Gautham and he was ready to wait for her, because he seemed to have fallen for her the first time he met her.
Amidst Neil’s lovely romantic chats and Gautham’s new found love interest, they still had a puzzle to decipher…
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(To be Continued …)
Everyone seems to be finding a partner for themselves, while Aryan was busy sipping coffee at the coffee shop. What was his scenario on the marriage front? And what happened to the tattoo? What was the fuss about it? Was Gautham’s marriage also fixed?
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ak, mmxviii
